Tokyo’s Other Games

Abstract

This chapter recounts how Japan became the third country, and the first outside Europe, to host the Paralympic Games in 1964. It reviews official and institutional reports, and general overviews of the Tokyo Paralympics that focus almost exclusively on key organizers whose vision and effort helped overcome various obstacles to bring the Paralympics to Japan. It also considers events leading up to the Games that reveal a more complex picture involving intersecting personal local, national, and transnational actors and motivations, which culminated in intense pressure to hold the Games in Tokyo immediately following the Summer Olympics. The chapter discusses the representations of athletes participating in the 1964 Tokyo Paralympics who share several similarities with those from recent disability sports events. It provides an analysis of the materials associated with the 1964 Games that offer insights that go beyond adding a “non-Western” perspective.